China ... plans to invest $600 billion in developing its national smart grid over the next decade" http://xrl.us/bij6yi
The EPRI report estimated the cost of upgrading the U.S. grid could range from $338 to $476 billion, up from $165 billion in a 2004 forecast. Benefit estimates have also skyrocketed to a range of $1.2 to $2 trillion, up from $660 billion estimated in 2004.

Smart Grid videos

Loading...

http://xrl.us/bij3ti A new report from Pike Research forecasts that 276 million smart grid communications nodes will be shipped worldwide from 2010 to 2016, with annual shipments increasing dramatically from 15 million in 2009 to 55 million by 2016... this will represent a total industry investment of $20.3 billion during the seven-year forecast period, with annual revenues increasing from $1.8 billion in 2009 to $3.1 billion by 2016..."

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

No. 1: Ambient Corp. Revenue at smart grid equipment maker Ambient (Nasdaq: AMBT) grew 2,740.69 percent from 2009 to 2011, making it the fastest-growing public company in Massachusetts. Pictured: CEO John J. Joyce.
The top 5 fastest-growing public companies in Mass.

NEWTON, Mass., Feb. 7, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Ambient Corporation AMBT +4.89% , a leading provider of flexible and scalable smart grid communications platforms and technologies, announced today that it has successfully extended the integration of its communications Network Management System, AmbientNMS® into an industry standard Distribution and Outage Management System (DOMS). The result is the delivery of faster and more accurate critical information to outage notification and restoration systems - improving service to utility customers.

Ambient's nodes connect more than 500,000 end devices in the Duke network, and can support a variety of smart grid applications, in parallel, including but not limited to; advanced metering infrastructure (AMI), distribution automation (DA) and outage management.

Starting at the communications network layer in any smart grid implementation ensures the costs of implementation, operations and communications are optimized and the Ambient node represents a most cost-effective solution, to reduce both capital and operational expenses for utilities.

As there is no one communications technology that is right for all applications and environments across utilities, the Ambient node's ability to support multiple communications protocols simultaneously along with purpose built applications and management system provide a level of visibility and control that utilities have never before enjoyed.

For more information about Ambient or the Ambient Smart Grid Communications Node, or visit them at Booth # 4220 at DistribuTECH 2012 in San Antonio.

NEWTON, Mass. and SAN ANTONIO, Texas, Jan. 25, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Ambient Corporation (Nasdaq: AMBT), a leading provider of flexible and scalable smart grid communications platforms and technologies, announced today that its Ambient Smart Grid® communications nodes now include Qualcomm's mobile broadband solution, the MDM6600 chipset. This chipset adds a new level of communications flexibility to the award winning Ambient Smart Grid® communications platform, and is certified by Verizon Wireless for use in its wireless network.

"As the smart grid industry grows beyond smart meters and attracts more and more energy-saving applications, the need for highly functional, stable and reliable wireless communications is becoming increasingly vital. Qualcomm's products currently provide us with best-of-breed solution for our nodes," said John J. Joyce, President and CEO of Ambient. "Their inclusion in our smart grid communications node makes the Ambient solution even more reliable and flexible for utilities." Today, Ambient connects over 500,000 smart grid application end points to utility network operation centers.
At the DistribuTECH 2012 Conference and Exhibition in San Antonio, Texas, January 24-26, Ambient (Booth # 4220) and Qualcomm (Booth # 1941) will both demonstrate the capabilities of Ambient's communications node using Qualcomm's chipsets.
For many utilities deploying smart grid networks, cellular backhaul is the most logical, easy-to- deploy and cost effective method of providing connectivity to assets in the field due to its breadth of coverage and carrier-supported reliability. The certification by Verizon Wireless assures utilities and other users of the Ambient Smart Grid® Communications Platform that the architecture will seamlessly deploy anywhere with Verizon's extensive network, for both application communications and system backhaul.
"Smart grid deployments continue to shift towards cellular technologies due to high network reliability, low latencies, ubiquitous coverage, remote field upgradability, low cost of ownership and a strong standards based ecosystem," remarked Andy Wood, Director of Business Development for Qualcomm. "Qualcomm is pleased to support Ambient's product introduction and their close engagements with major utilities in defining 3G cellular-enabled neighborhood transformer communication nodes."
For more information about Ambient and its products, please visit www.ambientcorp.com.

Memoori publishes a new report on the global Smart Grid business, forecasting total expenditure to 2030 and highlighting investment and financial activity in the market.

LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--By 2018 the world pure Smart Grid business will need to be running at $155 billion, some 50% larger than the current annual expenditure for all electrical transmission and distribution equipment. This will require major restructuring of both the supply and demand side if a truly “Smart” Grid is to be realized. Our research estimates that $2 trillion will need to be invested globally by 2030. Sales of Smart Grid systems in 2010 stood at just $16 billion, clearly showing the business still has a long way to go.

The need to reduce CO2 emissions within the existing electricity production and supply grid will drive the future growth of this business. The grid must be able to incorporate renewable electricity production from a multitude of distributed sources and be capable of matching the supply of electricity with demand at the point of usage and in real time.

In the space of 5 years mergers and acquisitions have grown from $134 million in 2007 to $10.6 billion in 2011. Both the growth and now scale indicate the supply side is gearing up to meet the requirements of new technology and forecast demand for pure Smart Grid products and systems. Investment in the market is also on the increase with venture capital companies committing some $1 billion per year in 2010 and 2011 to Smart Grid suppliers.

At 182 pages with over 23 charts and tables, The Smart Grid Business 2011 to 2016 report filters out important conclusions, supported with facts, as to what is shaping the future of the Smart Grid industry. The report contains key information for all those managing, operating and investing in Smart Grid companies around the world. You can learn more at the reports website; http://memoori.com/smart-grid-2012